Glasgow couple who met at Beatson 'too busy' with other weddings to get hitched

Ashleigh Edgar and Derek McCarvel fell in love after meeting while working on the wards at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow's West End.

Ashleigh took a shine to the hospital porter straight away and they were soon a couple and began planning a life together.

They were over the moon after hitting the jackpot in the GoRadio contest for an all-expenses paid ceremony and reception, scooping the top prize by raising thousands of pounds for the charity where they both work.

But when they sat down to work out when they could get married, they soon realised that they were going to be too tied up going to other people's weddings to organise their own.

Newsquest (Image: tNewsquest)

Ashleigh, from Maryhill, told the Glasgow Times: “We were delighted to win such a fantastic competition. However, when we started to try and set a date, we realised we’ve got too many other weddings to attend this year to squeeze it in - and two of them are abroad.

“There’s just no way we could get to them all and organise our own big day too. It’s quite funny when you think about it, but we want to attend all the weddings that we had committed to and then we will celebrate our big day in style next March.

"It’s important all our family and friends can share the day with us and we don’t want to clash with anyone else's celebration.”

Ashleigh, a community staff nurse, entered a competition with the station earlier this year, battling against three other couples to raise the most cash for a chosen charity.

Ashleigh, 36, and Derek, 42, organised a bingo night, bucket collections and bungee jump in just two weeks and raised over £13,000 for the Beatson to win a lavish wedding at Citation in Glasgow's Merchant City.

With venue, food, drinks, cars, DJ, decorations and a piper all paid for, the bride and groom-to-be were also delighted to learn they would be given money towards their dress and kilt.

Ashleigh added: “It really is a dream come true for us. It would have taken us years to save up for something like this. Even now, I still can’t believe we won and have to sometimes pinch myself because I’ve never won anything in my life."

Ashleigh joked: “We’re so excited, the venue is gorgeous and at least now we have finally got a date. It's just a bit later than we thought.

“People's kindness has been amazing, total strangers donated to our JustGiving page to help us raise the money. Everyone was a winner - we have our wedding to look forward too and the Beatson got a cheque for £13,303, which we were so thrilled about."

She decided to enter the competition after hearing about it on the radio.

Newsquest (Image: Newsquest)

Ashleigh added: “I genuinely thought I’d never hear back. It was a complete shock to Derek too as I never told him I had put us forward.

“To be fair, we both thought it was a great idea as it allowed us to raise funds for the Beatson. We see first-hand the incredible work that is done there and the charity was always going to be our number one choice.

“It is very close to close to our hearts, and we plan to do something special for the charity at our wedding. It’s just our way of giving something back.

“I still can’t believe we won, and we are just so grateful to have the wedding we always dreamed of but could never afford.”

The couple will finally tie the knot on March 18.